Traditional reality
In Love With Reality
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February 2012
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February 2012
Reality
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A Scientific Look at the Dangers of High Heels
Does it fundamentally matter if a woman’s calf muscle fibers shorten and she neglects her tendons while walking, especially if she loves the looks of her Louboutins?
That question is difficult for a biomechanist to answer, Dr. Cronin admits. Aesthetics are outside the realm of his branch of science. But the risk of injury is not. “We think that the large muscle strains that occur when walking in heels may ultimately increase the likelihood of strain injuries,” he says. (This risk is separate from the chances that a woman, if unfamiliar with heels, may topple sideways and twist an ankle or bruise her self-image, which is an acute injury and happened to me only the one time.)
The risks extend to workouts, when heel wearers abruptly switch to sneakers or other flat shoes. “In a person who wears heels most of her working week,” Dr. Cronin says, the foot and leg positioning in heels “becomes the new default position for the joints and the structures within. Any change to this default setting,” he says, like pulling on Keds or Crocs, constitutes “a novel environment, which could increase injury risk.”
It should be noted, he adds, that in his study, the volunteers “were quite young, average age 25, suggesting that it is not necessary to wear heels for a long time, meaning decades, before adaptations start to occur.”
So, if you do wear heels and are at all concerned about muscle and joint strains, his advice is simple. Try, if possible, to ease back a bit on the towering footwear, he says. Wear high heels maybe “once or twice a week,” he says. And if that’s not practical or desirable, “try to remove the heels whenever possible, such as when you’re sitting at your desk.” The shoes can remain alluring, even nestled beside your feet.
*Click above to read the full article
(via ikenbot)
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January 2012
Reality
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January 2012
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It’s time to end the failed war on drugs
Treating addicts as criminals has done absolutely nothing to address this crisis, writes Richard Branson.
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Reality?
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January 2012
Angry Nerds: Copyright Theft Is Bad, When It Happens To People We Like
Wrong is wrong, not just when it’s done to us and our friends.
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January 2012
New artwork by Saudi artist Ahmed Mater using a magnet and iron filings to represent people circling the Ka’ba in Mecca.
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Key Step in Evolution Replicated by Scientists
One of the great puzzles in science has been the evolution of single-celled organisms into the incredibly wide variety of flora and fauna that we see today. How did Earth make the transition from an initially lifeless ball of rock to one populated only by single-celled organisms to a world teeming with more complex life?
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January 2012
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I’m not recommending anyone taking any drugs. I’m just suggesting we need to have a more scientific rational approach to drugs and vilifying drugs like psilocybin [mushrooms] whilst at the same time actively promoting much more dangerous drugs like alcohol is totally stupid scientifically.
— former UK government drugs adviser Prof David Nutt
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16678322 -
January 2012
A Point of View: The tyranny of unwelcome noise
Honking horns. Household appliances that beep. Other people’s music. Should we turn down the volume, or get better at concentrating in a noisy world, asks historian Lisa Jardine.
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January 2012
The Muon Project
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